Tredegar Colliery New Bedwelty Pit Explosion – Bedwelty – 1865

TREDEGAR. (New Bedwelty Pit.). Bedwelty, Monmouthshire. 16th. June, 1865.

The colliery was owned by the Tredegar Iron Company and was known as the Bedwelty Colliery and included workings to the deep of the Ty Tryst pits and the explosion took place in an area that was being prepared to be worked. It claimed the lives of twenty-six men and boys. There were two deep shafts to the explosion area and two straight, level roads leading west where there were three cross headings on the rising side, each with their corresponding groups of stalls. The area was easily ventilated and the Inspector thought it sufficient but added a rider, “if it had gone through all of them”. The shafts went to the Big Vein seam and were about 230 yards deep and 16 feet by 11 feet, which were large shafts, They were 12 yards apart. The Ty Tryst Colliery had two shafts of similar dimensions that were connected to the Bedwelty shafts so the ventilation was good and there was an adequate means of escape in an emergency. Mr. Brough had visited the colliery on several occasions and had found the ventilation satisfactory and came to the opinion that:

The catastrophe is by no means attributable to want of power or of proper areas underground to produce a safe and adequate amount of ventilation.

At the time of the disaster, there were 50 men working in the district and the Inspector thought that the explosion should not have taken place. As soon as he heard of the event, Mr. Brough went to the colliery and descended and made his first examination on the 17th June. The following week he made other inspections.

On the Friday morning before the explosion, David Jones, a collier, and his son started work in the upper main cross hole to take down some coal to make a good travelling road but to do this they had to take down a door which turned the ventilation into Robert’s heading. This cut off the air to that heading which filled with firedamp and it remained in this dangerous condition until Wednesday. Mr. Brough commented:

That door should never have been taken from its place until all the colliers were out of the pit and everything got in readiness to remove the gas. Moreover, as soon as it as discovered that the door was gone, a new one should have been put in its place.

There were many reasons why the Inspector thought it was the son and not the father who fired the gas. The boy was found nearly in front of the crosshole and against the opposite rib, his brains were found dashed out. The body of his father was four yards to the west of this point. Mr. Brough commented:

If this poor child was to be trusted at all in dangerous places, he surely ought to have been provided with a locked safety lamp.

Those who lost their lives were:

• William Allen aged 28 years of Duke Street.
• David Benyon aged 25 years of Georgetown.
• George Carter aged 52 years of Cinder Tops, father of William.
• William Carter aged 17 years, son of George.
• Thomas James aged 30 years of Georgetown.
• Phillip Jenkins aged 12 years of Cinder Tops.
• Richard Jenkins aged 51 years of Cinder Tops.
• David Jones aged 45 years of Georgetown, left a wife and 5 children.
• John Jones aged 12 years, son of David.
• John Jones aged 35 years of Georgetown.
• Morgan Jones aged 18 years of Troedrhiwgaer.
• Nathaniel Jones aged 58 years of Ebbw Vale.
• Lewis Lewis aged 44 years of New Pits, left a wife and 5 children.
• Charles Meredith aged 20 years of Cinder Tops.
• Thomas Meredith aged 51 years of Troedrhiwgaer, left a wife and child.
• Edmund Morgan aged 12 of Market Street, brother of Thomas.
• Thomas Morgan aged 15 years, brother of Edmund.
• David Price aged 24 years, of Georgetown.
• David Rees aged 17 years, of High Street.
• Thomas Richards aged 16 years of Transport Row.
• Thomas Stead aged 51 years, father of William.
• William Stead aged 15 years, son of Thomas.
• Thomas Thomas aged 31 years of Georgetown.
• Edmund Watkins aged 17 years of New Pits.
• Charles Wedlock aged 22 years of New Pits, brother of Thomas.
• Thomas Wedlock aged 13 years, brother of Charles.
• Thomas Williams aged 21 years of Mount Street.

There were 20 injured and the most severely burnt were:

• John Lewis,
• Francis Thomas,
• Lewis Williams.

The proceedings were held before William Henry Brewer the County Coroner for Monmouthshire. Mr. Brough thought the gas that had fired was lying in the upper part of Robert’s cross heading and the explosions occurred at either the intersection of the upper or main crosshole with that heading or at the mouth of a little crosshole a few yards to the west. He also thought that the first general rule had been broken as this gas was not cleared from the place and that the third general rule was breached on the day of the explosion. The rule demanded that when safety lamps were to be used they should be inspected and locked by persons authorised to do this job. He contended that if this had been done the David Jones and a boy would not have been able to fire the gas. Only one lamp was given out that morning according to the evidence of the lampman and that was not locked. No lamp was given to his son and the Inspector thought that it was most likely that the boy had a candle or other lamps that were used in non-fiery mines. The Inspector went on to comment:

If the lampman had given out a locked lamp to the father, and another in like manner securely locked to the son, I repeat my opinion that the calamity would not have occurred. That the lives of so many people should have been in the hands of one man and mere boy is greatly to be deplored, especially when those very hands of a man, were without the protection of a locked safety lamp.

Concerning the removal of the door he sent on to say:

It is in evidence that the presence of a large body of explosive mixture, the removal of the door, and the other circumstances of the case were all well known. It is them that is to be regretted that instead of waiting until Saturday night they did not at once take the men out of the work and afterwards clear the gas from Robert’s heading.

After hearing the evidence, the jury brought in a verdict of manslaughter against the manager of the colliery who was bound over on bail to attend the County Assizes at Monmouth where he was found not guilty.

Mr. Brough was instructed to prosecute the proprietors of the Bedwelty Colliery and the case was heard before two justices of the peace at Tredegar on Friday 22nd September when all three charges against the accused were dismissed.

Mr. Brough commented in the Report for 1865:

That the colliers should have been at once taken from their work, and then the gas safely dislodged, and operation easy enough of performance. If this had been accomplished, the people, in all probability have been alive and gaining their daily bread.

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report. 1865.
“And they worked us to death”  Vol.2. Ben Fieldhouse and Jackie Dunn. Gwent Family History Society.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.